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The Covenant Made With Abraham

Many, many years passed, and then came the time of Abraham.

Abraham was married to Sarah and they had no children.

One day God said to Abraham, "Leave your country, Abraham, and your father's house, and come away into a land I will show you. I will bless you and make you the father of a great people, and in you all the nations of the world will find a blessing."

So Abraham left, taking with him his wife, Sarah, and Lot, his nephew, and all their possessions.

While they were traveling, a quarrel broke out between the shepherds of Abraham and those of Lot. Abraham said to his nephew, "Pray, let us not quarrel too. Let us part here. You go one way, and I will go the other."

Lot went to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah and settled there.

Then God said to Abraham, "Look about you. All the land you can see I will give to you and to your children forever. Your children and your children's children will be past all counting. From your family kings will be born. I give you My Promise that I will be your God, and the God of all your children, and of your children's children after you."

Abraham went to live at Hebron, by the valley of Mamre.

One day Abraham was sitting in front of his tent at the Oak of Mamre when he saw three strangers coming toward him.

Abraham saw that they were heavenly visitors with the appearance of men, and he bowed low and said to them, "Do not pass your servant Abraham by. Come and rest in the shade and I will bring You food."

The three men said they would stop for a while.

Abraham and Sarah entertaining the angelic visitors

While they were eating, one of the visitors said, "Abraham, where is your wife Sarah?" Abraham answered, "She is in her tent."

"Next year at this time," the stranger said, "she will have a son."

Sarah, in her tent, overheard him and laughed. "I am too old to have a son," she thought.

But God said (for it was He who had spoken), "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

The visitors got up to leave, and started toward Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham walked part of the way with them.

And God said, "Why should I hide what I am going to do from Abraham, this man who will be the father of a great people, in whom all the nations of the world will find a blessing?"

God said to Abraham, "The people in Sodom and Gomorrah are very wicked. I must destroy them and their city."

When Abraham heard this he asked, "Would You kill the innocent as well as the guilty?"

"Suppose there are fifty good men in the city. Wouldn't You spare the city for their sake?"

And God told him, "If I find fifty good men in Sodom, I will spare the whole city."

And Abraham continued, "What if there should be five less than fifty good men? Will You destroy the whole city then?"

And God answered, "If I find forty-five good men, Abraham, I will not destroy the city."

"Perhaps You will find only forty good men.....or thirty or twenty, or perhaps ten," suggested Abraham.

And God answered, "If I find only ten good men, I promise you, I will spare the city from destruction."

Then God left Abraham, and Abraham returned home.

That evening two angels came to Sodom. They found Lot, Abraham's nephew, seated at the town gate. When Lot saw the strangers, he went to meet them and said, "Please come and rest yourselves at my house. You can continue your journey tomorrow."

The angels went with Lot to his house.

Next morning the angels said to Lot, "Leave the city quickly with your wife and daughters.

"God is going to destroy this wicked city and everyone in it." Lot did not want to leave, so the angels took him and his wife and two daughters by the hand, because God wanted to show mercy to Lot and spare him. The angels took them outside the city and told them, "Run for your life. Do not stop or look behind you, even once."

When Lot and his family were far enough away, God rained down brimstone and fire and destroyed the city and everyone who lived there. But Lot's wife did not believe the angels. She clung to life in the city, so she looked back at it, and she turned into a pillar of salt.

Abraham, from the place where he had stood talking with God, looked out at Sodom and Gomorrah and saw nothing but smoke, like the smoke of a furnace.

It was because Lot was Abraham's nephew and a good man that God saved him from destruction.

Just as God had foretold, Abraham and Sarah had a son. Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah cried out, "God has given me a reason to laugh with joy."

They named the child Isaac, which means laughter.

+ + + Isaac + + +

Isaac grew, and Abraham loved his only son very dearly.

One day God decided to test Abraham. He said, "Abraham, take your only son, your beloved son Isaac, and offer him to Me as a burnt sacrifice. I will show you where to do it."

Abraham saddled his donkey, collected the wood needed for the burnt offering and set out with Isaac. When they were near the place God had pointed out, Abraham told those traveling with them to wait while he and Isaac went on. He loaded the wood onto Isaac and the two of them set off together. On the way, Isaac said, "Father, we have firewood here, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"

Abraham answered, "God will see to it that He has a victim, my son."

When they had reached the place God showed him, Abraham built an altar, and set the wood on it. Then he tied Isaac's hands and feet and laid him on the pile of wood.

As Abraham took out the knife to kill his son, an angel from Heaven called to him, "Abraham, Abraham, do not hurt Isaac. God knows now that you are faithful to Him, and that you are willing even to give up your only son for His sake."

Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in some bushes, and offered it to God as a burnt sacrifice on the altar he had built for Isaac.

Not long after this, Sarah died. Abraham bought land on which there was a cave, as a burial place for his wife. The cave looked toward the valley of Mamre, where Abraham and Sarah had lived.

+ + + Jacob + + +

When Isaac was a grown man, he married Rebecca, the beautiful daughter of Bethuel, Abraham's nephew. Isaac and Rebecca had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Before the twins were born, Rebecca had felt them struggling together inside her. She asked God about this, and He told her that the younger twin would be placed over the older one.

Esau was the firstborn son, and he had a ruddy complexion and was very hairy. When the twins grew up Esau became a skillful hunter who loved the outdoors. Jacob became a shepherd.

One day, Esau came home very tired from hunting. He found Jacob making broth, and said to him, "I am tired and hungry. Give me some of your broth." And Jacob answered, "Give me the rights you have as the firstborn son, and I will give you some broth." "Why certainly," said Esau. "I won't live to enjoy my birthright if I die of hunger first." And so Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of broth, as if it were a thing of no importance.

Time passed and Father Isaac grew old and blind. Feeling that he would die soon, he said to Esau one day, "My son, go out hunting for game and make me a dish of roasted meat, the kind I like so much, and I will give you my blessing." And Esau went hunting.

Rebecca had overheard this, and she said to Jacob, "Go and bring me two kids from the herd of goats; from these I will make the kind of dish your father likes. You can take it to him and he will bless you instead of Esau before he dies."

But Jacob said to his mother, "Look, my brother Esau is hairy, while my skin is smooth. If my father touches me, he will know I am cheating him, and he will not give me his blessing."

But Rebecca remembered what God had told her about her two sons before they were born. "Just listen to me," she told Jacob, "I will take all the blame. You just go and get me the two kids."

She told Jacob to put on Esau's clothes, and she covered his hands and neck in the skins of the kids, to make him seem hairy like Esau. Then Jacob took the dish of meat to his father.

"Father," said Jacob.

"Yes, my son, who is it?" answered the blind Isaac.

"I am Esau, your firstborn. Eat this delicious meat, and give me your blessing."

But Isaac said, "Come near and let me touch you, so that I will be sure you are Esau."

Jacob went up to this father, and Isaac felt his hand. "The voice sounds like Jacob," said Isaac, "but the hands are Esau's." So Isaac ate.

When he had finished eating, Isaac blessed Jacob and gave him all the rights of the firstborn son.

Shortly after, Esau returned from hunting, and prepared the dish of roast meat for his father. He took it to Isaac and said, "Here, Father, eat this meat I've brought you, and give me your blessing."

When he heard this, Isaac realized what had happened. Sadly he told Esau that he no longer had the rights of the firstborn son.

Isaac said, "By my blessing, I have put Jacob above you. I cannot change this, for I have given my word."

Esau was furious and planned to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac died. News of this reached Rebecca, and she feared for Jacob's life. She said to him, "You must go and take refuge with your uncle, Laban, until Esau's anger dies."

Jacob set out to visit his uncle. That night he slept in the open, using a stone as his pillow.

Jacob dreamed that he saw a long ladder standing on the earth and reaching all the way to Heaven. Angels went up and down the ladder and God Himself leaned down and said to Jacob, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and Isaac. The land on which you sleep is my gift to you and to your children forever. You will be the father of a great people; all nations will be blessed in you. I will watch over you and never desert you."

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs002/Images/Christian/ladder.jpg

Jacob’s ladder as inspired by the Christian saint, John of the Ladder

When Jacob awoke from his dream, he thought, "Now I know that God is watching over me," and he took the stone which he had used as a pillow, and set it up as a monument.

Jacob continued on his way until he came to a well. Shepherds were there with their sheep and Jacob asked them, "Do you know my uncle, Laban? Is everything well with him?"

"Yes," they answered, "all is well with him. There is his daughter Rachel with her flock."

Laban welcomed his nephew and invited him to stay with them. He had two daughters, Leah and Rachel, and Jacob fell in love with Rachel, the younger one. He asked Laban to let him marry her.

When Laban heard this, he said, "Stay and work for me seven years, and then you can marry her. "

So Jacob worked seven years to win Rachel, and the seven years seemed only a few days, because of the greatness of his love.

But on the wedding day, Laban insisted that Jacob marry Leah instead, because she was the older. He said if Jacob would marry Leah now he could marry Rachel too, if he worked for another seven years. So Jacob served his uncle another seven years.

Jacob had many sons. Rachel was the mother of the eleventh son, who was named Joseph. Soon after Joseph was born, Jacob was told by God to return to the land of Canaan.

He mounted his wives and children on camels, and gathered together all his possessions to return to his father, and to make friends again with Esau.

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him with gifts for his brother, and with this message:

"Tell him: Your brother Jacob follows behind us."

Jacob received word that Esau was hurrying to meet him with 400 men, and he was afraid. Jacob said to God, "Lord, You told me to return to my own family. Save me now from the power of my brother Esau."

That night, an angel came who wrestled with him until daybreak.

The angel, finding he could not win, said to Jacob, "Let me go, for dawn is breaking."

But Jacob answered, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." "What is your name?" asked the angel. And Jacob told him, "Jacob."

The angel said, "From now on you will be called Israel, which means one who prevails with God. You will triumph over men."

The next morning, Jacob, whose name was now Israel, saw his brother Esau coming toward him with 400 men. He was still afraid of his brother's anger, but Esau came joyfully to meet him, and embraced him.

Around that time, Rachel had another son, who was named Benjamin. And soon after, she died.

Over her grave Israel placed a monument which is called the Pillar of Rachel's tomb.

Isaac had been pleased with the return of his son. Not long after he, too, died, having lived 180 years. Esau and Israel together gave him burial.

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